poplon

[poplon]

"This blog last posted 8 years ago"

Haha okay so 2012

"no, 2017"

WHAT

[poplon]

Paul Schad-Rossa - Dancer (Irene Sanden), ca. 1910

[poplon]

Look, I know Tumblr is the website of chronically online introverts, but this is also the only website where I have any reach. And I live in America so this is relevant to me. So I'll go ahead and put this here.

Run For Something

Every year there's hundreds of positions that go completely unchallenged. Some of them for areas that you, the general American Tumblrite, probably care about.

I'm being so, so, so completely serious right now.

Run For Something

Run for something, and if you promise to never ban a book, the linked website and @fated-mates can get you in touch with volunteers for phone banking (aka letting voters know you exist, what you stand for, and convincing people to vote for you). Depending on your situation, they'll fund you, too.

(fated mates was more specific about helping Leftist candidates get $1000, but I'll let you listen to them on this episode and decide for yourself. I'm not affiliated with them.)

Women especially need to hear the message 7 times, according to some studies, to be convinced that yes, this is something they can do.

You can run for something! Run for something small. School boards. Municipal government. Run for something as a side hustle. Run for something because you're an empty nester and your book club stinks. Run for something so you can personally push things leftward, even if it's just one foot, that's one foot further towards your leftist goals no matter what they might be.

Run for school board because look at the fucking idiots currently running it. You know you're smarter than them. Fucking, if you've ever completed a school project you're probably smarter than them.

Run for something because Elon Musk is pissing you off. Run for something because you're trying to fight off despair. Run for something because you hate the idea that you can't do anything. You can do something! You can run for something.

But where to even start?

Don't worry, they got you.

Filling out this form will show you a list of state legislative and local offices where you can run based on your current address.

No matter the results, you will also be added automatically to the Run for Something candidate pipeline — check your inbox in the next few days for next steps.

Note: Data includes offices on the ballot in 2025 and 2026. Updates will be made throughout the year as additional information is available.

[poplon]

[poplon]

The Matriarch Isn’t the Villain. She’s the Mirror

I often hear a discourse where Celine in K-pop Demon Hunters, Alma in Encanto and Ming in Turning Red are seen as vilains. They’re the ones who restricted the younger generation, hurt them, and are ultimately responsible for their pain, trauma and self-doubt. They’re framed as the real villains of the story. But I’d like to differ.

These are stories of intergenerational trauma. They are women who survived, repressed, and tried to protect their families the only way they knew how: through control, perfectionism, and emotional suppression.

And yet, when the next generation begins to reclaim joy, freedom, softness — they become the obstacle. Not because they’re bad people, but because they’re scarred. Their minds cling to survival strategies, unable to recognize that the environment has changed.

Alma is still stuck fleeing the colonizers.

Ming is still afraid of her true self.

Celine believes that fear and mistakes must be hidden.

It’s not about hating these characters. It’s about how unprocessed trauma twists love into control. How survival, unexamined, turns into rigidity. These women were never given space to process their own pain and they project it onto their daughters and granddaughters.

And here’s something we rarely say enough: intergenerational trauma can create toxic patterns but that doesn’t always mean there was abuse or conscious harm. Even when their love becomes suffocating or controlling, these women are not necessarily “abusive parents.” They are daughters of silence, fear, and sacrifice. And they were never taught another way. It’s important to make that distinction, especially in a world that often pushes a binary, punitive reading of family dynamics.

They’re the product of a generation that was told to endure. But endurance without healing becomes its own kind of violence.

What’s powerful in these stories is that they don’t end in vengeance. They end in confrontation and transformation. The confrontation is necessary: the younger generation refuses the silence. Refuses the shame. Refuses to carry a burden that wasn’t theirs to begin with.

The house is destroyed in Encanto.

Mei accepts her full self.

So does Rumi.

And in the best cases, this confrontation allows the elder to soften too. Alma opens up. Ming listens. And I’m hoping in the sequel, Celine will open too.

Maybe that’s also why these stories speak so deeply to POC audiences. These aren’t stories about cutting ties. They’re stories about how hard it is to transform them, to protect ancestral bonds while refusing to perpetuate inherited pain. In many racialized families, collectivity, loyalty, and intergenerational duty are sacred... even when they come at the cost of personal boundaries.

And sometimes, Western individualist frameworks read these tensions as dysfunction or villainy. But for us, they’re just the difficult truth of growing up and trying to do better.

These women aren’t villains. That would be too easy. They embody the fragile, necessary work of bringing change without breaking the thread. These stories are about refusing to inherit their pain without reflection. Because love, without accountability, is not enough.

These stories show us that each generation has something to learn from the next. And the new generation must also break free from the chains they inherited while preserving what is meaningfull.

But it’s not just their story.

One day, we’ll be the older generation.

And we’ll need to be humble enough to learn from the ones after us.

So don’t be a fool.

We may be Mei, Rumi, or Mirabel today.

But tomorrow, we could be Ming, Celine, or Alma.

And when that time comes, we’ll realize how hard it is to unlearn what once kept us safe.

So let’s have compassion for all these characters.

Because these stories show us not just how the cycle of generations works, but how it can make us better, stronger, and more connected... if we’re all willing to go through the change.

∘₊✧──────✧──────✧₊∘

If you’re curious, I’ve written more on K-pop Demon Hunters:

A post on the mental health themes woven through the songs — right here.

A breakdown of Celine-Rumi in comparaison to Gothel–Rapunzel dynamic — here.

An analysis about Rumi, Jinu, and the danger of sinking together — here.

Some book recs for each of the K-pop Demon Hunters characters — here.

[poplon]

i can't explain it, but the older you get, the more you realize that the hornier, filthier the music is, the better it is for cleaning. it is not good for sex. it's good for cleaning. if it's breathtakingly misogynistic? even better. i'm sorry, Hollywood Undead, i'm sure you think Everywhere I Go was written to fuck to while blown out on a couple lines of coke, but you're wrong. it's for Fabuloso and industrial grade cleaning vinegar and degreaser. the only daddy here is Scrub Daddy. sorry.

[poplon]

Hnngh. The Audible "hack" is making the rounds again, with people claiming you can use your Audible credit to listen to a book and then return it "for free." While I am the first among many to say "fuck Amazon and we should gullotine Jeff Bezos," I need you all to know it's not Amazon refunding you.

It's the authors.

They take that out of our royalties. And that's after they take 80% of our royalties on sales we do make.

(Note: Also, do not assume that your credit is worth the price listing that Amazon shows. Amazon does not pay us the cost of the listing. ((WHICH THEY PICK, we cannot set our own prices on audiobooks and then that forces us to use the Amazon price for the rest of the market!!)) What we get is 20% of the credit's value, so my book might appear on Audible for $20-30. However, if you received an Amazon credit for one of those $4.99 deals, I'd get 20% of $4.99. Yes, it's fucked, it's all fucked. Yes, other audio retailers do the exact same thing. This is one of the reasons authors don't make half as much money as people think they do.)

This became such a big issue that they had to make it impossible to return books after a certain point without talking to a customer service representative, because people were using Kindle/Audible and Amazon's return policy "like a library," and some authors (myself included) were getting royalty checks that showed negative income.

At this point, I don't even know if the Audible "hack" still works (Amazon has made changes to protect authors from this kind of thing at a glacial pace), but I need you to know it's not Amazon that's refunding you. This isn't a fun little "fuck Amazon" thing. The way Amazon has it set up, it's directly fucking the authors over.

So, yeah. Obviously, if you download something and can't get into it, or if something pops up on the author's side that makes you not want to support them anymore, yeah, process that return. Yeet the bitch. But please don't use it "like a library."

It's really harrowing to see your predicted income based on sales and then find out you're getting one-tenth of that because of refunds. And it's not even because people didn't like your book. They're just using the wrong place like a library and fucking over your algorithm as well, because once you get too many returns, you stop getting promoted.

Try using a library. You can access places like @queerliblib for FREE provided you have a US library account that you've hooked up to Libby. It's a little bit of work, but once you've got a card number, you're golden.

Just, y'know, throwing it out there because I don't think people realize this is how it works. You're not taking something back to Walmart, and Walmart is eating the refund before dumping the item in the garbage. Amazon takes the refund, turns to the author, and takes it off our plates.

Note: this does not affect Kindle Unlimited. Flip through the end pages to give the author maximum pages read, and then return that bad boy so the author can get paid. But also, please, maybe think about switching to a Kobo+ account instead. It offers the same subscription-based membership without demanding exclusivity, so authors aren't locked into just Amazon the way they are with KU. (Royalty rates are roughly the same, but it's a better deal in terms of allowing broader market access.)

This has been a rambling and exhausted PSA from your local peddler of weres.

[poplon]

There is a news article going around about a zoo in Denmark who has requested folks to donate privately-kept animals (and specifically chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs, and had previously asked for horses) who require euthanasia, as feed for their large carnivores. There are also a LOT of really incensed people getting their panties in a twist about this.

I want to share the original post, as it is being portrayed a LOT as something it was absolutely not:

Here is the link to their website page

So first of all, let's all have a bit of a breath and understand that this zoo is NOT asking for your pet dog/cat. They are asking for animals that are already considered livestock in many places, and animals that humans eat in various cultures.

I want to make it very clear that this is a really good idea. Whether or not you understand/believe it, zoos do a lot of conservation work, especially behind the scenes. They foot HUGE bills for fodder for all of their animals, herbivores included. If they can make use of some animals that individuals cannot keep or do not want anymore, then why shouldn't they open the door for it? Unlike PETA, they're not snatching anyone's puppies off their front porch like monsters. They're saying they have a way for animals who cannot continue on to instead give life to their animals. They're offering the option. Not a single person is being forced to take that option.

But it is GREAT to have it!! If someone is losing a small pet like a guinea pig, or has excess livestock from hobby farms, and that pet would just decompose underground otherwise, giving them a second life in another animal they can go and visit is actually really cool?? I don't know if they track this kind of thing, but I would be absolutely thrilled if I could go to a zoo and see the tiger one of my birds' bodies was fed to. I may have lost the bird, but look! This beautiful creature turned her into energy, turned her into continued life! Not only that, but in doing so, some other animal that would have taken her place does not need to, meaning she has given life twice! Is that not a good thing? Is that not a cause for joy in the face of grief?

And there are overpopulation concerns with a LOT of domestic animals all over the world. There are kill centers stocked full of horses that are already being processed for meat, and I can guarantee the horses are having a worse time than they would if taken to the zoo instead. Small animals that are already bred for food, like chickens, pigeons, quail, rats, mice, and even rabbits and guinea pigs, are all good sources of whole prey, and rescues for stuff like rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats are often overrun. And any animals that must be euthanized to make room for new animals are just going to waste afterward.

While ideally none of that would be the case, and every domestic animal from the largest to the smallest would have a lovely home forever and ever and no one would ever breed more than society can handle, that's... just not reality. And it's unlikely to become reality anytime soon. There's no wand anyone can wave to make that real. And even if you could get close to making that real.... carnivores still need to eat.

But there IS now the option for this zoo to take local small animals that would otherwise go to waste. There is a way to reduce the number of animals going to waste, and reuse their bodies after they have passed. It may not be for everyone, but I believe it's GREAT that the option exists for those who want to take it. I would take it, if I bred the animals they're looking for. I already am in the process of donating mouse and quail culls to a local nature center.

Anyway, I know that for a lot of people, their gut reaction is going to be revulsion and outrage, probably because when they hear "pet" they think "cats/dogs" and their brain shuts off. So, I'm making this post in the hopes of giving even one person pause, of getting even one person to examine why, exactly, they feel this way, and whether or not that reaction is justified.

[poplon]

slightly furious reminder that fish do in fact feel pain and do in fact experience fear and distress when in pain since people seem to love spreading the myth that fish don't feel pain. what is it with people assuming a creature is incapable of feeling pain or emotion just because it doesn't have complex facial muscles. come on gang

[poplon]

Super weird to have innocuously added a silly personal anecdote to a post you didn't realize was super popular...

Only to have it cross your dash a week later and find out that like 12,000 people think you're lying.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[poplon]

i am so genuine when i say that people love to listen to you here btw. no, you're not talking too much. no, you don't need to shut up or quiet down. no, you're not spamming the dash.

it is so easy to be unkind to yourself. keep posting your fics whether you think they are good or bad - to everyone else, especially the people who support you, they are a product of everything you are and your efforts and hard work and creativity. we'll love it all the more. share your ocs-- you created someone and brought life into them !! that's incredible. and share your selfships -- the lore, the little things!! if it is a great comfort to you, then it is a great comfort to us as well. it is okay to be yourself here and to share the things you love and care about whether you make content or not. please don't ever let doubt or anyone else push you down. you're doing just fine. you have every right to exist in this space

[poplon]

“Public libraries are such important, lovely places!” Yes but do you GO there. Do you STUDY there. Do you meet friends and get coffee there. Do you borrow the FREE, ZERO SUBSCRIPTION, ZERO TRACKING books, audiobooks, ebooks, and films. Have you checked out their events and schemes. Do you sign up for the low cost courses in ASL or knitting or programming or writing your CV that they probably run. Do you know they probably have myriad of schemes to help low income families. Do you hire their low cost rooms if you need them. Have you joined their social groups. Do you use the FREE COMPUTERS. Do you even know what your library is trying to offer you. Listen, the library shouldn’t just exist for you as a nice idea. That’s why more libraries shut every year

[poplon]

David Hockney

The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020

Royal Academy (exhibition), London.

[poplon]

[poplon]

As AI art gets harder to clock, I feel like we are going to need to have a discussion about attribution and it's probably going to bum some people out.

Because the surest way to avoid platforming, reblogging, or encouraging AI art posting is to know where every image you share originated and that's 1) boring, tedious research and 2) extremely limiting in what you feel you can reblog. But if unattributed images never gets traction, people will start attributing their images.

I've been guilty of this in the past, but for a while now it's been my policy that if I can't verify the origin, I don't share the image. That goes for stuff like screen grabs of headlines too -- more than once I've avoided spreading misinformation by saving a post to research before I reblog, then seeing the post refuted before I've been able to verify it.

And I usually try to attribute photos I take -- case in point, the "woman with shrimp" post gets a lot of attention but not one comment about it being AI, despite it being pretty similar to something you'd get from an AI. That's because I clearly state it's in a museum and link to its catalogue page.

I'm not saying this to scold anyone -- I think yelling at the Internet to cite its sources is very much a losing game -- but because I don't see this discussed much. We're such fertile ground to be fooled by AI art because we've grown accustomed to not questioning the origins of any given image. And of course I also want to encourage both OPs to attribute their images and rebloggers to verify unattributed ones.

[poplon]

Slime mold was grown on an agar gel plate shaped like America and food sources were placed where America’s large cities are. 

The result? A possible look at how to best build public transportation. 

I just really like the idea of slime mold on a map of the US. It’s beautiful.